Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Ryan took over the UW program in 2001, one year after Dick Bennett led the Badgers to the Final Four, and has compiled a 357-125 record in 14 seasons. Under Ryan, the Badgers have made it to seven Sweet 16s and won four Big Ten championships.

The program reached elite status the last two seasons, making back-to-back Final Four trips, and this past season the Badgers beat undefeated Kentucky in the national semifinals before losing to Duke in the NCAA title game.

That success apparently isn't enough to keep Ryan on the sideline past one more season.

"Obviously when you get to the mountaintop like he did with the national championship game, I'm sure you reflect," Mader said. "These are decisions you don't take lightly. I've heard it's easier to get into it than to get out of it. It's so hard to decide when to leave, but obviously he had his reasons."

Former Xavier High School standout Matt Ferris, who played for the Badgers this past season as a freshman walk-on, is in Madison this summer and participating in offseason workouts. He said the impending announcement by Ryan wasn't obvious to the players.

"I really had no idea," Ferris said. "But it's not like it totally hit me out of left field or anything, either. He's always upbeat, he's always lively. But he's been coaching for a long, long time. Ultimately, it's his decision and I respect it because he's such a great coach and a great man."

Mader was recruited to Wisconsin by Bennett, another state coaching icon, but he says Ryan has taken the program to an even higher level.

"Dick is a legend, but with all due respect to all the other other coaches, this guy's a winner," Mader said of Ryan. "He's the best Wisconsin has ever seen. It's that simple. The numbers speak for themselves. He has accomplished things that fans I don't think necessarily expected. He's exceeded expectations, I think, of all fans, of a lot of people."

Longtime Kaukauna High School boys' basketball coach Mike Schalow, who is a member of the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Executive Board as the Division 2 representative, praised Ryan for his willingness to work with high school coaches in the state.

"Certainly he was very visible," Schalow said. "I thought he was great with high school coaches and very willing and open to opening up their practice facility and their program to high school coaches. I thought the relationship like that was very, very good."

Mader called Ryan a "great teacher" and said those lessons, both on and off the court, last long after a player is done at Wisconsin.

"It was a privilege for me to play for the guy," Mader said. "I took a lot of life lessons away from playing for Coach and I still use them today, which I'm sure he'd be proud of."

Ferris, meanwhile, doesn't expect Ryan to be any different in his final season as coach.

"He'll be giving it his all and not backing off us in practice and not backing off the officials, I guarantee you that," Ferris said. "I think this will make him appreciate it even more."